Okay, let me try to write down what I did on this soup so I can do it again sometime. As usual, I was just throwing what I had into the pot. As far as amounts go, who knows? I tend to cook, taste, adjust, and just keep adding stuff until I like it. I’m just trying to remember about what I did.

Saute onions till tender in a large stock pot using Pam. (Ordinarily, I would probably have sauteed some diced celery as well but I didn’t have any.) Trim all visible fat from beef and add to pot with 6 cups water. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer at least three hours until meat is very tender. Remove meat from stock and dice. Add it back to stock.

Lean Beef Round is not going to give up a lot of flavor so I started adding a bunch of stuff to the stock at this point. Added a lot more water, probably about six or seven cups and added a couple generous tablespoons of Beef Soup Base and stirred in a couple of good splashes of reduced sodium soy sauce. I tasted the broth and it seemed a little thin so I looked around to see what I had and stirred in a couple teaspoons of steak sauce. The stock tasted pretty good at that point so I kept it simmering while I peeled and diced some potatoes. I didn’t want the starch from the potatoes to ruin the stock so I boiled them in another pan until tender, drained and rinsed them, and set them aside.

I usually use quick cooking barley but didn’t have any. I had the barley that takes 45 minutes to cook. I added the barley and 2 1/4 cups of water to a medium saucepan, brought it to a boil, and then reduced the heat to simmer for 45 minutes.

After the barley was done, I added it, along with the potatoes to the soup. I had a few egg noodles in the pantry so I stirred them in and brought the soup to a boil for ten minutes to cook the noodles.

The soup was really good at this point and the noodles were great in it but they started to fall apart after it was reheated a couple of times to keep it hot so I don’t know if I would add them if I was planning on reheating or keeping the soup warm in a crock pot.